HUD Housing Counseling National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions

1. HUD Housing CounselingNational Federation of Community Development Credit Unions Presented by Sarah GereckeDeputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Housing Counseling • April 4, 2013

2. Agenda • What is HUD Housing Counseling? • Impact of Housing Counseling • HUD’s Role • How to find agencies in your area

3. What is Housing Counseling ? About 2,500 nonprofit agencies nationwide are approved to provide numerous counseling services, including: • Pre-purchase Education • Reverse Mortgage • Mortgage Delinquency • Financial Management • Rental Assistance • Homelessness • Applying for Making Home Affordable Modifications • Many agencies provide more services and programs, including down payment assistance, emergency utility assistance, job/interview training, daycare, food banks, homeless shelters, or managing low income housing

4. Goals of Housing Counselors • Provide unbiased assistance to help clients resolve their housing problems or needs • Provide education and one-on-one counseling • Design an action plan to address barriers to housing • Help clients to access community resources • Monitor client’s progress in meeting their housing goals • Assist client to work with lenders to resolve mortgage delinquencies

5. HUD Office of Housing Counseling “The mission of the Office of Housing Counseling is to help families to obtain, sustain and retain their homes. We will accomplish this mission through a strong network of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and counselors.” • Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act • 67 HUD staff from the HUD Single Family Program Support Division • National office with staff spread across the county from Alaska to Florida Goals: • To help clients assess their financial situation and achieve their housing goals. • To increase public awareness of HUD’s housing counseling programs. • To increase the knowledge and capacity of HUD’s housing counseling network. • To improve the impact of housing counseling on consumers and neighborhoods nationwide.

6. Impact of Housing Counseling

8. Impact of Pre-purchase Counseling • A recently released study of the two-year loan performance of over 18,000 pre-purchase counseling clients from the NeighborWorks America network of counseling agencies finds that those counseling clients are one-third less likely to become 90+ days delinquent in the two years since obtaining their loan than those who did not receive pre-purchase counseling (Mayer and Temkin, 2013). This study was controlled for selection bias. • A Turnham and Jefferson (2012) HUD study analyzed the outcomes of 573 pre-purchase counseling clients 18 months after completing counseling and found that 35 percent of the participants became homeowners, with only 1 person falling 30 days or more behind in their mortgage payments. • Study by Peter Zorn, Vice President in Freddie Mac’s Models, Mission and Research Division suggest that the overall delinquency rates of borrowers receiving counseling are 15 percent lower than otherwise identical borrowers not receiving counseling.

9. NeighborWorks® Research on Pre-Purchase Counseling Data provided in “Pre-Purchase Counseling Impacts on Mortgage Performance: Empirical Analysis of NeighborWorks® America’s Experience “ *All “with NeighborWorks Counseling data” is from NeighborWorks Affiliates, not agencies that received NeighborWorks training

10. HUD Office of Housing Counseling “The mission of the Office of Housing Counseling is to help families to obtain, sustain and retain their homes. We will accomplish this mission through a strong network of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and counselors.” • Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act • 67 HUD staff from the HUD Single Family Program Support Division • National office with staff spread across the county from Alaska to Florida Goals: • To help clients assess their financial situation and achieve their housing goals. • To increase public awareness of HUD’s housing counseling programs. • To increase the knowledge and capacity of HUD’s housing counseling network. • To improve the impact of housing counseling on consumers and neighborhoods nationwide.

11. Monitoring HUD Agencies Housing Counseling Agencies seeking HUD approval submit their applications to the Office of Housing Counseling for review. Applications are reviewed using a checklist on the following major areas: • Tax exempt nonprofit status • Audited Financials • Experience in counseling • Facilities • Compliance capacity • Agency Work Plan Performance Reviews are performed every two to three years and re-evaluate the information provided in their initial application for approval, plus: • Client Files Reviewed • Updates to work plan or staff • Reported Client numbers • Survey Letters sent to clients • Grant administration review

12. OHC Program Initiatives • Strengthen relations and communication between HUD and housing counseling network, in order to achieve broader community impact. • Encourage Housing Finance Agencies, regional and local coalitions to consider options of bonding as intermediary networks • Increase the visibility of housing counseling to help consumers and strengthen the industry. • Explore incorporating housing counseling into more public and private rental and mortgage programs, including FHA. • Solicit comments and best practices from industry partners.

13. Why Partner With Housing Counseling Agencies? • Prepare your clients to make sound financial decisions from an unbiased professional counselor experienced in the local housing market • Receive notifications on new initiatives, scam alerts and other valuable information that comes from nonprofit impartial sources • Exchange referrals and resources with agencies serving clients typically served by the NFCDCU

14. Partnership Models • Marketing and outreach • Cross-Referrals • Financial Education to reach housing goals • Employer-Assisted Housing programs • Participation in Mortgage Lending programs • Neighborhood Redevelopment

15. Ways To Partner With Housing Counseling Agencies Every area has unique needs and existing collaborations to serve the public. HUD Agencies have countless initiatives to meet local needs. • Use HUD’s website to find agencies within your area to make contact • Discuss formal and informal ways you can work with each other • Refer clients! • Join task forces, community development roundtables, and meetings, outreach events • Join agency mailing lists for news • Ask for agency counselors to present home buyer education as part of financial education courses

16. How to Find a HUD approved Agencies Contact counseling agencies by HUD’s interactive voice system by calling (800) 569-4287 to search by zip code Receives over 2,000 calls daily Online referrals to approved housing counseling agencies are available on www.hud.gov directly on the main page

17. How to Find a HUD approved Agencies The next screen takes you to a drop down of states to select your area from, or you can click on states directly on the map

18. How to Find a HUD approved Agencies The search results show agency’s address, contact numbers,email, languages, provided, and certified services

19. For More Information Contact counseling agencies through hud.gov at www.hud.gov/findacounselor Or call (800) 569-4287to search by zip code Check out our new iPhone app in the app store (search housing counseling) For grant information, training and events, counselor resources and to sign up for our listserv.www.hud.gov/housingcounseling Questions or comments: housing.counseling@hud.gov